The above video and webpage took up an entire evening for me to review. I have recently learned of the Mandela Effect and that led me to flat earth arguments. Both of these ideas are trending on google. I have a feeling we are coming into a time of faith crisis. Information, both true and false, is so readily available that I think we are all starting to go into overload. I, like my dad, am certainly an info junkie. I love to learn and understand but as you probably know, the more you know, the more you know you don't know.Knowing is beginning to seem impossible to me. Sure I can say I "believe" something but it's getting pretty hard for me to honestly say I "know" anything.Rob Skiba strikes me as my kind of guy. He thinks a lot like me and loves a lot of the same things I love. When I ran into his flat-earth video I had to give the 3 hour video a listen. I have to say it could be about half the size it is - it has quite a bit of repetition. Rob found the flat-earth problem a serious one because he first tried to put it down using scripture, but as he studied, he found that there is no place in scripture that describes the spherical earth and our current Helio-centric view of the cosmos. The creation account clearly places the earth as the center of attention, if not of the universe. Flat earthers love to point to the background radiation from space that shows the earth is not moving - making it the center of the universe. Rob did his own experiments and investigations into the flat-horizon problem and into the not-seeing-far-objects-disappear over the curvature of the earth problem. He spent months on this. The Mandela Effect also had me captivated because I don't remember the earth looking the way it does these days - specifically I thought the old pacific time-zone map on windows shows Chile in line with LA. Memory has a way of playing tricks on you but I swear Darth Vader said "Luke" and not "No" - I even swear I have used that line many times as a joke. The one that really got my interest was the "bottles" term in the KJV (and many other translations) of the bible for Mathew 9:17 (but NOT 9:18!). When I heard of this I checked all my bibles and there it was in all but the NASB. This could all be a mind trick, similar to the subtle suggestions that magicians make to their audience to get them to think of things the wrong way so they can be tricked. If every KJV bible changed, if every copy of the old Star Wars movie changed, etc. etc. it means something really bizarre is going on.Ok call me nuts but like Rob Skiba, I think it foolish to dismiss anything without any investigation.After about a day of searching I found what I think is a killer argument against the flat earth idea. The diagram above shows it all. A 14000km race around the south pole - which the flat-earthers say is the edge of the disk of the earth. Sorry, if that were the case this race would cover about 77000km not 14000. This race has apparently happened annually for quite some time.At least for now that gives me some relief, but as Rob argues, it means that the Bible doesn't really mean what it says. Now it doesn't say outright that the earth is flat, but it implies it in many many places (see Robs video link above). It's just another example of the fact that you can't read that book without some kind of symbolic context. It doesn't work literally in so many ways that it drives my logical-side mad.When I get into these fits of frustration with God's word I recall creation and realize that SOMETHING made this world or simulation and there is a purpose to it. I have seen no other religion as rational as Christianity and the Bible is - nothing else comes close to the amount of witnesses and facts that support it - but it is still unfathomable to me. Father, I believe... help me with my unbelief.

Beautiful closing line, Sandy. This is the knid of thing i love to see from my friends. I have a similar struggle with certain aspects of the Bible which are presented in a literal context but are really symbolic. Without research and discussion, it becomes such a hazard to Christian belief. My hingis the same as yours, this system within which we live was designed and has a purpose. We still don't know nearly enough to pro or con about many scientific and religious arguments so our focus should be on just being good human beings at the core.

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Sanford Staab

1/6/2018 10:23:42 pm

Here's the website about the race around the south pole:
http://www.acronautic.com/antartica-cup-ocean-race/

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Somebody blessed beyond comprehension who lives in Idaho on a beautiful ranch and loves composing music and thinking good thoughts towards my God.